Whispers of the Past
by Lady Hallen
Summary: Immortals-verse. Tessa just knew her baby boy would be special. It was made especially obvious when his eyes changed colors like a kaleidoscope.


Whispers of the Past

**Hey guys! Just saying that I am sooo happy to be getting inspired. My brain is actually working overdrive to spew out stories. I missed you all, and it would be a joy to get some reviews *****HINT*****. **

**Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

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_The strongest heart is not one who is firm and ungentle. It is one who loves and loves as much as they can no matter how many times they are broken._

_-Lady Hallen-_

* * *

Tessa's pregnancy of Emma was pretty easy and clear coasting. So when she was pregnant with William and was sicker than anything, with the morning sickness, back pains, swollen ankles and irrational mood swings, it started her thinking that maybe the baby would be something special.

As his mother, she was one of the first to hold him, covered in bodily fluids and all, and saw his eyes change from blue to gray…and then to green. Looking to Jem, she realized that he was busy discussing runes with Brother Enoch and did not see. Quickly, she whispered to William to keep a shape and keep it secret. Surprisingly, he listened.

Tessa, of course, could not keep it hidden forever since the Silent Brothers could tell the moment it came to write the child's First Runes on his fifth birthday. So she told him when William reached three years old.

"Jem," she whispered as they lay together in bed.

"Yes, Tessa?"

"As Emma is like you, so is William to me," she muttered. She hoped he would understand the cryptic sentence. It worked throughout their marriage; people would think he read her mind sometimes.

There was a silence and his unchanged breathing. And then he said, "Oh. I suppose you will have to train with him then."

And that was that.

Tessa was so grateful for his answer, his lack of condemnation for his child, that she thanked him as well as she could, which resulted in Tessa looking embarrassed the next morning and Jem being pleased. Emma had grown enough to notice the signs and tried not to think too hard about it. She appeared to be studying her eggs and bacon as though it held the secrets of the universe.

Teaching William had to wait until he was old enough. Tessa remembered the pain of the first change and did not wish to subject her child to the same pain until he could be able to bear it and understand why it was necessary.

So she helped him have a childhood, laughing with him and teaching him to love books.

When he turned out to have an eidetic memory, reciting passages with ease from the library books, Jem's hand found hers and held on. She had red-rimmed eyes the day after and he commiserated with her. Tessa knew he understood since he had played his pain in the violin the night before, the strings wailing the sadness of his heart.

It took a while for her to smile at him without it looking forced while he greeted her with lines from Hamlet. The only thing Jem said in regards to his memory was, "I believe he was aptly named."

Emma, having been told her parents' unique story, understood what was happening and assured her brother that he was loved and their parents were just having a hard time adjusting to his ability to remember everything.

"Its… somewhat melancholic for them," she explained. "But mums happy, you prat. Don't go acting like an unloved orphan or something."

William loved his mother more than anything. She was his first love, and he knew that she loved him too. So when he realized his eidetic memory was hurting her, he stopped spouting off lines like a poetry book. Tessa was distressed and closeted herself with him for an afternoon. They emerged happier and Will was reciting words again with ease.

* * *

When Will reached 12, Tessa started teaching him about the change. She remembered the horrible time that the Dark Sisters captured her and taught her and she knew she did not want to subject him to the same thing. It would probably take longer but he would not go to bed weeping.

"You are different," she started. "You are like me, Will. Emma can have the runes of the Angel carved on her skin, but when we tried it on you, it sunk and did not leave a mark. It cannot drive you insane, like the mundanes, but it cannot affect you either."

"So what can I do?" he asked. His dark eyes were curious and bright with eagerness. He looked exactly like Jem.

"You can change your shape to whatever you wish. When you were born, your eyes were a kaleidoscope of colors. It kept changing and since I did not wish to alert the Silent Brothers and subject you to experimentation, I told you to keep a shape…and you listened! You have not changed a thing about yourself since that moment."

Will nodded. "Okay, so I stopped myself. How do I do it again?"

She taught him to meditate, to listen to the whispers of the object and to be completely in tune with his body. He stretched around the training room and was covered with sweat by the time he was done. He also managed to change his eyes to blue.

"It hurts!" he gasped. "Mum, is that normal?"

She hugged him and commiserated with him. "Its almost dinner. Do you want to keep the eyes?"

He looked apprehensive. "Does it hurt to change back?"

"Oh no. Changing back is easy," she assured him. "Well?"

He kept the eyes and had fun surprising Emma and Jem. Tessa watched from the dining room as Jem blinked in surprise and Emma peered into his eyes and asked, quite bluntly, "what drug have you been drinking?"

The siblings had an argument and then Emma conceded defeat and turned to Jem, saying, "Dad! It's unfair! Why can he change his shape and I can't?"

Jem chuckled. "You can also kill demons and have the runes of the angels on your skin, while your brother can't. Nothing is ever really fair, Emma."

Emma pouted and sulked throughout dinner. Will further aggravated her by changing his eyes to every color in the spectrum. Tessa noticed and scolded him quite soundly.

"Will. You just managed to change your eyes today. If you faint from the pain, I will spank you for your stupidity."

That made Emma grin and poke her tongue at him. Tessa, about to launch another lecture about acting ladylike, stopped when Jem caught her hand under the table and squeezed.

Wills training was slow but less painful. They progressed from the eyes to the nose and then the hair. When he managed to change every part of his head, he started on his limbs; the fingers, the toes and his nails.

Tessa stopped him from experimenting when she was not there. The cause of the rule was a memorable incident when she declared a holiday from training and went outside to have a date with Jem. When she came back, Will was trying to hide a tail and looked vaguely panicked.

When Jem laughed at the tail and Emma looked amused, Tessa had her arms full of a sobbing, slightly hysterical Will. "It won't change back!" he cried. You had to remember that he just recently turned thirteen.

"There, there!" she patted while glaring at the audience. "You'll have to calm down and that won't work with people watching, right?"

Jem took the hint and dragged away his curious daughter. Emma seemed to have a vindictive glee watching her sibling fail at something.

"The tail is part of your tailbone, right Will?" Tessa murmured.

Distracted, he nodded. She had him reading medical texts explaining the body when they started training and his memory helped there. "It is the part of evolution that seemed to have been lost in the space of history between …"

She let him ramble on and allowed him to reach the conclusion himself. "…So if I retract the tail, I cannot just make it vanish!" he said triumphantly. "It has to surge back to the tailbone! Mum, I am brilliant."

Tessa raised an eyebrow. He coughed. "Err, right. I am brilliant and you're awesome."

"And that, my dear son, is why you cannot experiment without me," she said.

The first time Will managed a full body change, he passed out. He woke to Tessa sponging his forehead worriedly; her eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Her hands were patting him as though to reassure herself that he was in one piece.

"Yeah. Give me a moment, mum. Did it hurt like that when you tried it?" he asked.

"Worse. I suppose it did not hurt the parts that we have already practiced on?"

"Yes…only the rest of my body is throbbing like crazy."

"The first change I did was to have a full body change. I did not wake up for two days," she said solemnly.

* * *

When Will was seventeen and Emma was thirty-five, he made an announcement that broke Tessa's heart as much as it made her proud.

"Mum, Dad, I'm going to tour the world," he said during dinner. Emma, by that time, was already married and living out of their house. "But don't worry, it will only take me a year…and if things don't go to plan…maybe two years."

Tessa composed herself while Jem asked all the pertinent questions like, "When are you going and with whom are you going with?"

"I'll start this Saturday. And Magnus and Alec offered to go with me…something about a world tour?"

That made Tessa and Jem laugh.

"Enjoy yourself," Tessa smiled. "Where will you start?"

"Here, and once I've exhausted America, I'll go to Europe and then Asia," he said.

"When you pass by China, do not forget to visit the shrine of our ancestors," Jem said sternly. "And give the Penhallow's our regards."

The Penhallows were in-charge of the Chinese Institute after Jem's parents were murdered there.

"I know, I know," Will muttered under his breath. He did not roll his eyes in the least.

* * *

Will, of course, could not leave New York without visiting Jace and Clary. It went against the morals his parents taught him and both of them were unofficial relatives anyway.

"Hey," he greeted. He leaned against the door of the Institute with his luggage around him. "'Sup?"

Clary gave him one of her encompassing hugs. "William! You should have told me you were coming. Charissa is out with her werewolf."

Will snorted. "Nope, I don't need to see Charissa. But I came to tell you that I'm leaving with Magnus and Alec. We're doing a tour…"

Clary laughed. "Oh, so you are included in that. I thought they were doing a thirty-third honeymoon or something. Let me get Jace."

"Don't worry. I'll go find him. Traning room, right?"

Jace was training Jacob Montverde and the boy kept cursing in broken Spanish whenever his knife did not hit a target.

"Visualize. The arc of your hand is also important," Jace said. He was leaning on a cane but his eyes were sharp.

William took one look at the situation and smirked. "If he doesn't stop holding it like that, he will stab his own foot."

Jacob yelped and nearly did stab his foot. He cursed even more eloquently. Then he sneered when he noticed the lack of runes on Will. "Mundane," he nearly spat out.

"Lackluster Nephilim," Will sneered. "Can't even hold a knife properly, not even with Jace teaching you?"

Jacob colored and threw the knife he was holding at Will. Will did not have to move; such was the horror of Jacobs aim. Not saying a word, he grabbed the knife imbedded a foot from his head and threw it at the target behind Jacob. It hit dead center.

"You were saying, Nephilim?" he said.

Jacob stormed out of the training room, yelling all the way in Spanish. Will managed to hold back until he was out of earshot and then he burst into laughter. Jace merely sighed, limping his way towards Will.

"And once again, you manage to enrage someone you just met. One of these days, Will, you will have to teach me how you do that. Me? I have to open my mouth to get them angry. You just have to stand there looking amused and suddenly the blades are flying."

Will reigned in his laughter. "It is good to see you Jace. And my mum says it's a gift that seemed to come from sharing a name with William Herondale. They said he has the same gift as well."

Jace raised an eyebrow. His hair was more platinum instead of gold these days. "I assume that you are not here to exchange pleasantries?"

He told Jace his plans with Magnus and then outlined the course of his journey. "It is not fast, but it is probably safer than traveling mundane," he finished.

Jace nodded. "I agree. And you have to bring me back a souvenir. It is the least you can do after I illegally trained you without your parents' knowledge."

Will blushed. "Ah, uhm. You know, I think they know. Or, at least my mum does. She had this look in her eyes. But my dad really does the poker face of his and I have no idea what he is thinking anymore."

"Nobody really does. It's the Chinese eyes, you see," Jace said.

Will laughed.

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**Gosh, I can't believe it's been two years. I probably won't be writing any fanfic-one-shot in relation to Emma until the last book is published. I don't want to make this anymore AU than it already is.**

**I think of Will as a happier version of his namesake. Plus, he had a happier childhood and he had Tessa as well. So, I think his character is more of the kind that takes amusement whenever there is humor and insults whoever insults him as well. Of course, he doesn't look for fights, but he looks like a mundane and can fight like a Nephilim (it's in the blood, no matter how diluted). He acts superior so it rubs many of the Shadowhunters he meets the wrong way.**

**I will be writing another one-shot but it will be between Magnus and Tessa and Alec. I haven't settled on a title yet, but it will come.**

**Toodles. Give me a review pls.**

**Sincerely yours, **

**Lady Hallen**


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